NBA Game Summary - Boston at Chicago

Chicago, IL (Basketball News) - Kirk Hinrich scored 25 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 100-94 victory over the Boston Celtics at the United Center.

Luol Deng, Mike Sweetney and Ben Gordon all chipped in with 14 points and Andres Nocioni added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls, who have won two straight and four of their last five games.

With the win, Chicago moved to within one game of the Philadelphia 76ers for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Wally Szczerbiak had a game-high 28 points and Paul Pierce added 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Celtics, who have lost three of their last four games.

The loss pushed Boston back to four games out of the final playoff spot in the East.

The game was even at 74-74 going into the final quarter.

The Celtics grabbed an 81-77 lead with 9:29 to play after four-straight points by Szczerbiak. Hinrich hit two free throws to get the Bulls back to within two, but the Celtics nailed the next five points to make it 86-79 after Ryan Gomes put in a layup with 6:28 remaining.

Chicago, though, scored the next 12 points and Hinrich’s fadeaway jumper with 3:57 left gave his squad a 91-86 lead. Hinrich had six points during the burst.

Pierce hit two free throws and a layup to make it a 91-90 game with 2:32 to play. Deng then drained a jumper and Hinrich made 1-of-2 from the line to make it 94-90.

Two Gomes free throws and a Pierce slam sandwiched two Nocioni free throws to make it a 96-94 contest after Pierce’s basket with 34 seconds remaining.

Deng, however, hit two free throws and, after Pierce missed a jumper, Nocioni hit two from the charity striped with 5.7 seconds remaining to seal the win.

The Celtics started out the game with a 10-1 run. The Bulls closed to within 14-10 after Sweetney’s layup with 6:27 left in the first. But the Celtics pulled away and took a 28-19 lead into the second quarter.

Boston led by as many as 11 points in the second quarter. Chicago got back to within three, 50-47, after Gordon put in two free throws. But, Boston scored the last five points to take a 55-47 lead into the locker room.

Chicago continued to keep things close in the third quarter, but was down by nine points, 71-62, after Raef LaFrentz slammed the ball home to cap an 8-2 Boston run with 4:47 left in the third. But Chicago closed out the quarter with a 12-3 run and Gordon’s trey with 0.6 seconds left tied the game up at 74-74 heading into the final quarter.